The next few Chapters of the Run Like Hell have been fantastic, I hadn’t even noticed I’d passed my usual page count while I was devouring it. The quick pace and gorgeous scenery are so vivid I could see it all playing out in my head like a movie. The car, the 007 reference, and the interesting-yet-familiar descriptions of the Empire are just icing on the cake, at this point!
I’m also quite enjoying the rather-sharp contrast in character between Ken and Cass that’s developing as the story progresses. Ken’s blunt-but-honest approach and ability to think on her feet may be a double-edged sword for Cass’s seemingly doe-like but determined manner, but the love the two heroines share is as palpable as ink on a page.
I’m also quite intrigued by the design of the world they traverse though, the whole universe feels like a massive Uncanny Vally trip… how you can draw so many similarities between today’s world and the fictional one, and even though the differences are stunningly complex; you could still imagine how our current standpoint could become one like Ken and Cass’s. Like the privatized road system and the currency, but then the massive jumps between modern technology and the not-so-unrealistic ones proposed in this exemplary work of Adam Gaffen somehow drip with originality.
I’m quite excited to continue this journey, and I do hope to find Derek again soon! I am ever-so-curious how such a well-known artist could just fall off the face of the Earth after such a high-profile wedding… however, knowing Adam, there will be a genuinely good explanation for his disappearing一 and the possible involvement of the HLC!